L.A. County supervisors vote to make interim chief executive permanent

Los Angeles County supervisors emerged from a closed session Tuesday and announced that they voted to appoint interim Chief Executive Sachi Hamai to the position permanently.

The county has been without a permanent chief executive for nearly a year, since William T Fujioka retired in November.

The chief executive and his or her staff is responsible for drafting the county’s budget, negotiating labor agreements and overseeing a broad array of contracts and projects commissioned by the board.

The supervisors initially appointed Fujioka’s second-in-command, Brence Culp, on an interim basis, but quickly removed her after two new supervisors came into office in December.

They said at the time that it was inappropriate for Culp to be in the interim position because she was also a candidate for the permanent position, and that might discourage other candidates. Culp is now overseeing initiatives relating to the sheriff’s department for the CEO’s office.

In the following months, the board voted to restructure the CEO’s office, taking some authority from the chief executive and giving it back to the five-member Board of Supervisors. Hamai played a key part in writing the rules for the new structure.

At the time of Culp’s removal and Hamai’s appointment, the board said in a statement that it wanted to “create a level playing field” and avoid the “appearance of favoritism.”

The supervisors said they had asked county attorneys to create a policy that would prohibit candidates for department head positions from serving as acting department heads.

No such policy was created. A recent report by the county’s top attorney, Mary Wickham, board executive officer Patrick Ogawa and personnel director Lisa Garrett said that “there is no consistent approach among private and public agencies for handling executive-level interim/acting appointments” and that the board “has wide discretion” in making such appointments.

“It is in the organization’s best interest to be flexible in its temporary appointments if the organization believes the interim/acting executive is the best qualified candidate for the permanent position,” they concluded.

Prior to her appointment to the interim position, Hamai had served as executive officer to the board, responsible for preparing meeting agendas and handling administrative tasks.

She had worked for the county for nearly two decades before that, including in the auditor-controller’s office and the department of health services.

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said the board had commissioned an evaluation of Hamai’s performance by a consultant.

“We were all very pleased with her performance,” Kuehl said. “She gets things done....She’s very thoughtful, very efficient, she knows the budget like the back of her hand.”

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said in a statement that Hamai “has been an outstanding county leader throughout her career and has excelled as our Interm CEO.”

The board had initially hired a search firm and was interviewing candidates upon Fujioka’s departure, but the search was put on hold after Hamai took the interim role. Kuehl said that was in part because the search firm reported that other candidates were unsure whether they should pursue the job or whether Hamai was the board’s choice for the permanent position.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said the board had asked Hamai to step into the permanent position rather than her applying for the job.

Once the appointment is finalized, he said, the county will have more stability in a permanent executive and “a CEO who the entire board trusts.” Ridley-Thomas had a contentious relationship with Fujioka.

The board will finalize the appointment next week after negotiating Hamai’s salary and other elements of the contract. Her current salary is $310,000.

Follow Abby Sewell on Twitter at @sewella for more county news.